Training for racing in rowing

When you race, you use extra muscles that you don't use in training​. In this video, Lachlan runs through some techniques to practice in training, which will help prepare you for race day.

Video Transcript

​a lot of people forget that when it comes to racing you're actually using a whole heap of different muscles and a lot of different techniques than you do when you're rowing slowly where the real difference comes is on the way down on the recovery at a low rate you don't actually pull you pull the boat towards you very much you're basically just you know keeping the boat at a constant speed through the water and that's really efficient at a low rate but when it comes to racing racing's really inefficient you're basically trying to get over the two kilometer course as quickly as possible and you know you don't care how much energy you waste doing it in a way and so what you end up doing to get that high rating is you pull the boat towards you and these pulling muscles don't get a workout at a low rate so a lot of people are you know very good steady state paddlers so like very good rating 20 you know pulling quite hard but they're not they're not used to pulling the boat toward and they're not used to that feeling of drawing the boat bringing it towards you and getting that placement nice and quickly so when it comes to race day they're using a whole heap of muscles that they don't use normally and they've got a they've got to speed their catch up a lot quicker otherwise they'll miss water so what i suggest doing is have a practice in training just to draw the boat towards you so bring it up with your feet so actively try and get that little bit of acceleration around the three-quarter slide mark try not to have it just straight on the line although bringing it up off the line and drawing the boat towards you is a little bit more inefficient when it comes to race day you'll be practiced at it and you'll have that feeling of coming forward placing quickly and getting out of the catch quickly which you're going to need at a high rate one of the added benefits of doing it practicing drawing the boat at a low rate is it it's a really good way to reduce your catch duration it makes it a little bit more inefficient at a low rate but you get practiced every single stroke at the same sort of pace into the catch as you would in a race and that's invaluable when it comes to race day you'll feel a lot smoother you'll know your catches at full length a lot better and you'll find that you have a much better race because of it he also ends up feeling a lot more snappy a lot more punchy and you can really focus on technique as opposed to just sort of you know grinding along it the the stroke comes less about the work with the legs and more about that preciseness that clean catch and the work just comes if you go off the heart rate monitor you can easily monitor what you're doing and you don't really need to think too much about the pushing with the legs only to monitor on the heart rate you can just focus the whole time on that technical aspect drawing the boat placing it getting nice clean technical stroke that's going to help you on race day so you might think that practicing this skill of drawing a boat towards you getting a quick catch that simulates race conditions is something that's only for the boat in reality you can do it really well on a dynamic erg so a rowperfect or a concept 2 erg on sliders so basically the idea is you you're a little bit slow around the finish you're not very slow just slow enough to keep the rating whatever rating you want then when you come to about half slide you really draw the boat in a controlled manner though draw it towards you it's on there you just come forward drawing and then you can take the stroke so nice and you're thinking about in that race scenario where you're coming into the catch you want to be in and out quick you want to be nice and snappy you want to get your brain used to firing all the right neurons at the right time to get that movement in and out if you do it slowly at a slow rate or like don't think about it when you're rowing along there's a good chance that when you come to race day you'll be trying to play catch up you won't be primed and ready for it and your neurons and your brain will have to learn on the spot so it's good to practice this in training do it on the erg do it on sliders if you can but you can practice it on a fixed erg as well it's just a just a matter of pulling yourself in a little bit at the catch so you know you know nice and quick getting used to that change of direction it's going to become crucial you know at 30 plus strokes per minute